Community School Development Project in Moldova (phase IV)

Project duration: April, 2012 – March, 2014

Implementer: Programul Educațional Pas cu Pas/ Step by Step Moldova

Financial support: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, OSF (Open Society Foundatioms/UK), UNICEF Moldova

Other partners: ISSA (International Step by Step Association), Ukranian Step by Step Foundation, ContinYou (UK), Center for Children with Special Needs “Sperantsa” (Moldova)

Project objective: empower schools, by developing own new democratic culture open to multiple partnerships and to meaningful learning for people in all age groups, to become catalysts of social changes in their whole community.

Project activities in tranche IV:

Technical assistance to Community Schools

• The new CS schools were assisted by the SBSM national mentors-facilitators in the process of school self-evaluation based on a better understanding of the CS Quality Standards. 
• SBSM has supported community schools in the implementation of their local projects with some equipments, like printer-copying machine and photo cameras for the CS newsletter projects (in Ştefăneşti and Sănătăuca communities from Floreşti district, Crocmaz  community from Ştefan-Vodă district, Bravicea community from Călăraşi distric, Varnişa communitz from Anenii-Noi district); musical equipment for the CS club (in Ştefăneşti, Floreşti district).

Networking and experience dissemination

• With SBSM technical support and facilitation the cluster of community schools from the southern part of Moldova have organized a regional conference with the title ” Together for a Community School” in Cahul. 

The conference was organized around three strands: Community Schools=An Inclusive School, Civic Activism and Volunteering, CS in developing Leadership  Skills, School Culture.

As part of the conference activities a fair was organized at which CSs  have presented their most successful local projects and other achievements in implementing the CS principles.

• The information about the conference was shared across the entire network through the SBSM web-site. The SBSM web-site also hosts the CSs newsletters with examples of local actions. This is a valuable resource, according to the opinion of the CSs representatives.The regional conferences and web-site information sharing have contributed to the establishing of good horizontal communication and exchange of experience between the 171 CSs in the national network.
• Some CSs, like the ones from Ştefăneşti, Floreşti district and Cahul (Al. Donici primary school) are very active in supporting other schools in their disctrict and beyond. Thus, CS from Ştefăneşti has hosted a seminar for schools from their own district (Floreşti) and a neighboring district (Drochia).   
• During the implementation  period, with UNICEF support SBSM organized seminars on Inclusion for the regional inspectors from all 33 districts and for teachers from 42 schools from 5 districts. SBSM has focused on the need of a comprehensive approach to the issue of inclusion as part of a complex school transformation process and shared the experience of CSs, using some case studies. SBSM hopes to have the opportunity to support more these schools through including them in the CS network.